







Turbify Q & A
There is a lot of confusion surrounding the new Turbify. Below are some of the most important issues, questions, and answers.
Q: Should I upgrade?
A: Probably the number one question. To
answer this question you need to consider a number of points. Before we go any
further, you should know that you are not required to upgrade. Ever. For most
store owners the bottom line is cost. To figure out whether you'd be better off
with one of the new pricing packages, refer to this
page.
Q: What happens if I don't upgrade?
A: Nothing. If you don't upgrade, nothing
will change in the way you currently use your store. However, new features may
not be available to "legacy stores", only Turbify stores (the new
Shipping Manager and UPS Integration Tools is one such recently introduced
feature.)
Q: Is RTML dead?
A: No. The store part can still only be
fully customized through RTML. However, you now have the option of building your
store completely on the web hosting platform using conventional Web design tools
such as FrontPage or DreamWeaver and the specialized
store
tags. This route is great if 1) you have a smaller store and 2) you are
comfortable with designing web pages on your own. For larger stores (with
hundreds or thousands of items), creating each item and section page can be
prohibitive. If you don't normally design your own pages, on the long run it
pays having a professionally built, template-based store. That way you can
concentrate on adding your products and copy rather than having to fiddle with
HTML.
Here is another consideration when you use store tags to build your store: you
need to edit your "default" table in the Catalog Manager, enable the "product-url"
field under "Shopping Fields", and then manually add the entire URL of your
product pages for each product. Without that, the hyperlinks in your shopping
cart will take your customers to the default store pages. Which brings us to
another point: the shopping cart page can only be customized through RTML.
Q: When I upgrade to Merchant
Solutions, should I transfer my current domain name?
A: Previously the answer was a resounding "No". Today you can use your existing domain name, however. During the upgrade to Turbify (or afterwards) you will need to log into the Domain Control panel and make sure your domain is set to point to the Editor Home Page rather to the web hosting home page.
Q: If I don't upgrade to Merchant
Solutions, can I still get the 20% off the published pay per click fees in
Yahoo! Shopping?
A: Yes. Originally, Yahoo! advertised the
20% discount only for Turbify users. Now they extended it to both
Turbify users and legacy stores. To sign up, click the "Yahoo
Shopping" link in your store manager.
For a more in-depth discussion of the issues surrounding the upgrade, the handout of our "Upgrading to Yahoo! Turbify" seminar is available here.